


i won't ever forget you

by solaleonis



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, also jesse mcnally deserved better i miss him, anyways soft baby xander and willow makes me cry goodbye, i just love these two idiots and their platonic soulmateism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27247210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solaleonis/pseuds/solaleonis
Summary: it's Xander's fourteenth birthday and his parents forgot...again. luckily he'll always have Willow.
Relationships: Xander Harris & Willow Rosenberg
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	i won't ever forget you

It was a warm summer day and the sky was cloudy but very bright.

It was Xander’s birthday, and so far, it wasn’t a good one. His parents had spent the whole day fighting, and the very first thing Xander heard on his fourteenth birthday were echoes of shouting throughout the house. His parents had forgotten his birthday before, but this one particularly stung. It had been years since they’d last forgotten, and for a moment Xander thought they might have become better. He thought that maybe they finally cared enough about him to remember the one thing they should always remember. But deep down he knew that wasn’t the case.

Xander wiped the tears from his eyes on his shirt and rolled over on his bed. He had spent the last few hours staring at the wall, trying to focus on his new comic book issues. But he couldn’t. It was his birthday, and he was all alone. He hadn’t even spoken to Willow.

They had plans to meet at their special spot like they did every year, but Willow always called him first thing in the morning anyways. But this year she didn’t, and Xander thought that perhaps Willow forgot about him too. He was used to this from his parents, they forgot about him often - but never Willow. The two of them did everything together - if she wasn’t in school, then he wasn’t in school. It was simple as that. Without her, Xander would feel like his heart was half empty.

Seeing the time on his alarm clock, Xander flopped off of his bed to go and meet Willow. He swapped his tear stained shirt for one sitting on his ~ _ not quite clean but not quite dirty~ _ chair in his room. This felt better - it was a refreshing change of clothes, and plus this shirt had Spiderman on it.

Xander grabbed his skateboard and headed down the stairs. His house had quieted down, except his mother was angrily washing dishes while his father sat drunkenly half-passed-out in the living room. “Hey Mom, I’m going to see Wil now! I’ll catch you later!” He shouted to his mother as he headed for the door. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Be home before sundown!” 

Xander shut the door and hopped on his board as soon as he got to the sidewalk. “ _ Be home before sundown.” _ Xander mumbled to himself.  _ “Yeah, right.” _ She probably wouldn’t notice if he didn’t even come home at all. What if he just ran away forever? Sure, he probably wouldn’t get far since he’s fourteen and didn’t really have anywhere to go, but it was nice to contemplate it. He and Willow often talked about the idea of having a family that actually cared enough to pay attention to them, and how nice that would be. For now, his  _ real _ family consisted of him, Willow, and Jesse. And it wasn’t  _ quite enough, _ but their little friend family was as good as it might ever get. 

He rode his skateboard down the road, towards the little foresty part at the end of their street. He felt the warm sun on his skin and closed his eyes for a second, before swerving a bit and suddenly remembering that he was in fact on a skateboard. He never really got great at riding this thing, but he also never practiced so he made peace with his constant wipeouts. 

He brought his board to a stop and kicked it up as he made his way off the sidewalk and into the clearing before the forest entrance. A little way into the forest was an abandoned treehouse that Xander, Willow, and Jesse found one day, and it became their special place ever since. They didn’t really know how the treehouse got there, or if it belonged to anyone, but they went there nearly every day and never saw another soul. So they decorated it with posters and little knick knacks to make it feel more like home. 

He ditched his board at the bottom of the tree and climbed up the ladder into the treehouse. The ladder was a bit rickety and the treehouse wasn’t the sturdiest structure in the world, but it hadn’t collapsed yet, and they’ll take that as a win. 

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” Willow shouted the second Xander got up the ladder. She managed to wait for him to be fully in the house before tackling him over. “Birthday hug!!”

“Hey, hey, Wil! You’re gonna take this whole thing down!” He yelled playfully, accepting her tackle hug.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Willow readjusted herself as Xander looked around at the decorated treehouse. Willow had put up a few streamers, and had a couple balloons stuck to the wall. It wasn’t much, but to Xander it meant the absolute world. 

“DELIVERY INCOMING!!” Shouted a voice coming from the bottom of the tree. Xander poked his head out the window to see Jesse standing below raising up a basket. Back in the fourth grade, Willow took it upon herself to construct a pulley system for their treehouse after their lesson on them in science class. She was always a huge nerd about those kinds of things, and Xander loved her for it. 

Willow and Xander both took an end of the basket and brought it in through the window, as Jesse made his way up the ladder. 

“Ooh! What’s in here?” Willow said excitedly, eyeing the basket that Xander was digging into. Inside was an assortment of snacks: cookies, fruit, chips, juice boxes...the whole nine yards, really.

“My mom made the cookies this morning and I managed to steal a few,” Jesse said as he clumsily swung into the house, causing the structure to shake a bit. Willow looked at him nervously, and he copied her expression mockingly. “She says happy birthday, by the way.” Xander smiled. At least Jesse’s mom remembered. 

“Ew, who wants fruit?” Xander winced, rummaging through the basket and digging out some cheese strings. He took out a container of strawberries and passed them to Willow, who was craning her neck to see what he was doing. Strawberries were always her favourite. 

“Chip me, good sir!” Jesse said from the other side of the treehouse, catching the bag of chips Xander threw at him. 

The three of them hung out for a few hours until Jesse had to head home for dinner, leaving just Willow and Xander alone.

“So...good birthday?” Willow looked over at Xander. The two of them were laying on pillows looking up at the stars they painted on the treehouse ceiling when they were little. 

“They forgot.” Xander said, looking down. “But this was good.” 

“Again? But, but they were being so good!” 

“They have too much going on. They’re too busy fighting all the time to pay any attention to me at all. I don’t know why I’m bothering telling you this, you know how it is.” Xander looked over at Willow.

“Yeah. I got a 98 on my English test and mom wouldn’t pay attention to me long enough to tell her.” Willow said, looking down. “But! At least we have each other, right?” 

Xander smiled.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you earlier, I got really busy with homework and completely lost track of time.”

So she didn’t forget him after all. She was just busy, and that was okay with him. He could handle his parents’ fleeting interest in him, but not her. Willow was the only constant in his life, the only thing that made him truly feel safe. If she forgot about him...well, Xander couldn’t bear to think of it. “You scared me for a sec there, Wil. I was a bit worried you forgot about me!” He said teasingly.

“Hey! How dare you accuse me of such a thing!” Willow dropped her jaw and playfully shoved his shoulder.

“Fine, you didn’t hear a single peep from me.”

“Good.”

The two of them lied down for a bit, just enjoying each other’s company.

“Hey Xander?” Willow asked.

“Mhm?” He mumbled.

“I won’t ever forget about you,” she said, leaning onto his shoulder. Xander smiled. He doesn’t have much, and if nothing ever gets better, at least he knows he’ll always have Willow.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! i love these idiots with my whole heart
> 
> my twitter is (@xanderhxrris) if that's ur jam


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